Plunge milling is a technique used to remove material quickly, without generating a lot of heat. It works particularly well for pockets, with long end mills and with gummy material.
Thanks Denny. All is very well. The company I work for sold last month, which enabled me to retire, and Thursday was my last day. It's been a stressful month, with lots of financial stuff and tying up of loose ends, but it's all good. Monday morning it'll all sink in when I don't have to get up and go to work. :) Tom
Tom, Just wanted to let you know how much I have enjoyed an learned from you videos!! Thanks for taking the time to make then! Looking forward to new ones! Thanks
you showed this awhile back. It has changed the way I mill. The big plus for me is the end of the end mill dulls not the side flutes easier to sharpen and the end mill can be kept true to diameter longer Thanks again for a great tip.
Some of the best advice I have recieved yet. I was a mechanic by trade, fell in love with the sea and worked on tugs for a while. Now, I am shoreside with an office job. I say all this to say, I am not a machinist, not even close. Wasn't even a hobbyist till 2 weeks ago. In 2 weeks I made a few mistakes. Your video here straightened me up enough to actually mill the needed components. I am building a sawmill from the ground up. I needed to machine 2 bearing guides. I humbly thank you for sharing what you know 🙏 looking forward to watching your other vids!
That Hardinge Lathe is so sweet! Had one at my previous job and loved working on it. I recently purchased a CNC mill to start my own shop in addition to designing and marketing my own products, so your comments at the beginning are definitely inspiring.
Thanks Dennis. I'm considering a Haas Mini Mill to play with after retirement. I had a Hurco CNC mill at my disposal on my last job and it hurt bad to leave it behind. Tom
I have been following you for many years now and I have learned alot from you, and I am Grateful. I wish you the best of Luck in what ever you do and lots of Good health and happiness. Thank you for making these videos and sorry my english :)
Thanks Tom. Glad you're back. I never thought of this technique until I saw you use it on the carriage stop body, and since, have used it a lot. It's faster, and it's easier to sharpen the end of the mills than the flutes. Makes 'em last longer.
Another good technique for the arsenal. It was also interesting to hear a bit about you. I, too, have machines that are paying for themselves in a small shop and I'm happy for being independent and for the jobs that come through the door (and out again). Thanks for the video. Nice.
Tom, I don't have a milling machine yet but when I do finally get one, I will keep this tip in mind. Thanks for sharing with this metal working newbie! Joe
Not gonna lie, I miss your full-blown videos. With that said, I am really enjoying these quick tips and technique videos too. Thanks for still producing entertaining and instructional videos, very much appreciated.
Thanks Ray. If all goes as planned, I'll be on a permanent vacation in a few weeks. Then I'll have time for the full blown ones, among other things. :) Tom
As an addendum to the background thing, about a week after I made this video, the company sold and I was able to retire. I'm into week two now and still trying to figure out what to do with all my new found time. :) Thanks for watching. Tom
Hi Tom, I just found your channel and really enjoy your techniques and processes. I’ve learned quite a bit from you and hopefully by the time I get through your library of videos you’ll be settled into that new shop you’re building in MI. Wishing you a safe and successful move & looking forward to more videos in the near future.
Moving at this stage of my life is quite a challenge, especially when there is a machine shop involved. We are pretty much into the house, although I am still working on the kitchen remodel and some built-ins. The shop is pretty much complete and I have been moving in machinery. It's located in the U.P., so everything has to be trailered up from midstate. So far, the mill and lathe are safely in their new homes. The propane delivery is scheduled and I'm in the process of installing a condensing boiler for the radiant heat. It'll be nice to have heat before the U.P. winter moves in. I wanted to have the well put in too, but it looks like that's gonna have to wait for spring. I'm definitely looking forward to getting the shop operational again and start making more videos.
Crazy Dude !! OK Now I am shore you have had a Iranian Friend :) Clever people Dont make Revolutions when their country is at the top in every possible way, because of Bld. Arab Religion called Islim :). But I stop, because Its about your video's and your videos are much more interesting than any Polotics these days if you ask me...:)
Thank you for the tip Tom. I have broken 3 or 4 end mills just because of doing what you said not to do!! No More will that happen. Plunge henceforth.... Thanks!
Looking at that part you made I'd imagine there was some warping after all that material was removed. I like your comment about the stress relieved weldment, that's the first thing I thought of when I saw what you were making.
Cast jig plate is extremely stable. You can do some pretty radical machining on it without fear of warping it. On the other hand, it's soft and doesn't anodize well. Tom
I can't imagine buying a hardinge lathe new. The ones I have seen were made before the second world war, still ran like brand new, and were still worth a fortune! I would never be able to justify buying one. Very nice.
Machines like that are excellent investments if you have the ability to put them to work. People spend that kind of money on cars all the time and think nothing of it. Machines like the Hardinge hold their value AND generate income. It's a win win. Thanks for watching. Tom
G'day Tom I would like to wish you and yours a merry Christmas and a prosperous new year and thank you for channel which has helped me over the year kind regards John
I use this to crank out mill stop bases whenever I need more. A 33/64 End Mill and ~.100 stepover between plunges will push out a slot almost as quickly than I can think about it!
He uses it for roughing out such as can be done in slots by stepping over however with a cnc plunge milling is of super importance for many reasons especially angled walls. It should almost always be done cut down only and rapid back up and stepover for a few reasons. It produces perfect accurate angle walls and tapers where as going around and around--does not. The benefits are many and is analagous to making a lathe cut--the cutter cuts on the end but produces the finished surface as the tangency of the radius of the insert moves along--just like a lathe. Another huge benefit is truly astonishing roughing rates because you can step over 1/4 inch and be hacking off .100 deep to rough! (that by the way shows why you must plunge cut only ONE WAY--DOWN) and rapid back up just like he did in the video. yet another benefit visualize a 3/4 insert cutter producing a million machine taper inside or even a straight wall or big round bore?--note that since inside the cutter can step over .030 OR MORE each time finishing the taper perfectly in a couple minutes.. if you do the match the cusp is almost nothing even with massive stepovers. Yes it works and is done daily in industry. Another benefit is that the insert and cutter hardly care if the material is aluminum or hardened steel.. however going around and around stepping down it certainly does--THE CUTTER WILL PUSH AWAY A HUGE AMOUNT AND GO DULL.. you will not even reach the bottom.. Plunge milling in hardened h-13 is how we cut hewlett packard printer body molds and other things. Also you can plunge cut straight deep walls even in hardened steel and the walls will be perfect and straight--but be aware you have to relieve the side of the insert so that only a small land is hitting you cannot have the insert scrubbing against the walls. Anyone interested I just created a FB group--shapers and zlinear plunge milling techniques and tools. If you type in all one word SHAPERINFO it also will come up It is also based upon the shaper attachment that goes on the back of bridgeports..
Hi Tom Haven't talked in a while - I have done some cutting like that but I have a cooling system bolted to the turret head machine and it force cools rather well and I was using a 3 flute hole hog (wrong words maybe) and it seemed to work pretty good - but I don't think it went any faster that what you just showed thx art
This is quite timely for me, as I'm about to mill some vehicle steering arms out of billet steel and was thinking about how to go about initial rough cutting of the parts from the billet. Since my mill is a hobby mill (Taig), I was concerned about doing it in an efficient manner.
Hi Tom, I don't have a mill but I recently got a compound table for my drill press and these techniques help with the overall ergonomics of using workshop machinery. Any thanks for sharing. Kindest regards. Joe.
Yeah, I've been thinking about it. There are still a lot of topics that would make great videos. Once this retirement think gets too boring, I'll pick it up again. :)
I really hope you are not done making videos and all is well. Just found your channel and will be watching all of the episodes. Thanks much for passing on your knowledge!
Thanks Dale. Not sure how I missed your site for so long, other than that time thing, but I'm subscribed now. That's an excellent intro you've put together. Tom
I do this a lot when milling long slots . start with a size smaller end mill. and finish with the size needed end mill and use the table Power feed works great
Again Tom, great video, do you have any videos on setting a point on a new part using a DRO and then setting the drill points in the SDM ? Really impressed with your work shop.
Thanks, Doug. The reference point on a part is set using an edge finder, or an indicator for a hole. Not sure what you mean by SDM. Unfortunately, that shop is no longer. We moved and everything went into storage. I have built a new shop and am getting it set up, but it's a slow process. I hope to be operational again in the coming year.
I built prototype injection molds for 25 yrs. I wouldn't recommend clamping a part where you are taking out the center wider than your vise jaws. There's a chance when you take it out of the vise the center will bow and the pocket could actually flex out larger than you wanted. It might only be a couple thou but that's still bad if you have to be dead on.
Yes that could be an issue as the part gets longer relative to the vise jaws. In this case, the purpose of the frame cut was to simply lighten the part, so a any bow would has been little consequence.
Hey Tom, nice job. Having watched you before I have used your method and works great, I have one question is there a way to do this and mill a curve or angle with a manual mill? Or would you plot it out with dro. I am just a hobby machinist and make small parts for my radio controlled cars. God Bless Ya Dave
Absolutely. For curves, you need to mount the part on a rotary table centered up on the axis of rotation for whatever curve you want to machine. For angled cuts you would either rotate the vise, or clamp the part to the table at the required angle. Tom
Things are going very well on my first year of retirement. I'm currently building a 40 x 70 shop/toy box in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, so have been keeping very busy. I'll post a progress report one of these days once I get it all enclosed. Tom
Hey Tom, appreciate your work! Could you elaborate more on how one gets "outside work" or "bidding on jobs"? I hear these terms tossed about a lot, but i missed the memo where they told you where to go to get these jobs. Call me ignorant, but i've always been interested in doing side work, just never figured out where or how to find it - aside from beating down doors and the rest of the old-school hard marketing methods.
Hi Andrew, I was lucky to have had some connections who opened a few doors for me. Most of the jobs I landed were for designing fixtures or attachments for machines and I was unique because I could do the design as well as build the devices. Once I delivered a few jobs, I then got more work by word of mouth. Generating contacts is always more productive than beating down door (with everyone else). Tom
Gentleman? You must be talking about my dad. ;) I am doing well. My wife and I sold our house to move closer to the grand kids. Unfortunately the new house had no room for a shop, so I'm in the process of building one. That will probably be my first new video, once I get it up and running. It's going to be a while though, I have most of the shop machinery out of storage, but nothing is hooked up yet, and the place is full of boxes. Hang in there, though. I will be back.
@@TomsTechniques I am really looking forward to your return Tom. I just got back into your videos on processes using the milling machine and they have helped me a lot. Now that I am milling more, instructional videos are the most helpful. Thank you for all of your contributions for us to reference.
Doing well, Steve. I've been taking time to catch up on projects that had been put on hold for lack of time and to spend more time with my family. I'm currently building a 40 x 70 metal building in Michigan's upper peninsula to house my shop and hobbies and as sort of a first step to moving up there permanently. New videos are in my future, but there is a lot to do before that happens, including the rebuilding of my website. Take care, Tom
I could had used this in the shop today. I conventionally milled a slot for a fixture. My end mill got clogged up. I was using 6061 alum so I just knocked it off with a chisel
Tom thank you for all you do. Not many of us left although I’m not a machinist I’m a heavy mech. We possess skills given to us by our Lord JESUS Christ. Have a blessed day if you do believe it may be time to invest a bit of scripture in the vids. Tubal Cain comes to mind.
All is well. I'm just figuring out this new retirement lifestyle and so far, I've been busier than when I was working. :) I'm told that will change, and when it happens, I'll start cranking out some new videos. Tom
Just curious you mentioned heat, why not show down your speed a little bit? I found slower speeds are better. I clear chips better at slower speeds without the need to plunge cut.
Running an endmill outside of its recommended rpm is asking for trouble. Too high will burn it up, and too low will increase the chance of breakage, due to a higher chip load. If you are having trouble clearing chips, your best bet is to decrease the depth of cut, and increase the feed rate. Or, with deep pockets, use plunge cutting.
Soon Don, soon. There have been some major changes in my life (in a good way) and I'm working on getting everything in order. The company I worked for and was part owner in has been sold and I have subsequently retired, all in one months time. There will be plenty of time for videos now, once I get used to the new deal. :) Tom
Good morning TOM I’m the 71-year-old newbie and I’m finishing up setting up my shop at home mainly to do hobby work. I do have a LeBlond leave and a Bridgeport along with the surface grinder. I was wondering what your opinion is in reference to should I prepare my shop for the process of using coolant on the Lathe the Bridgeport Milling Machine. I’d be really interested in your opinion. I guess the question boils down to why do you need coolant I understand you use cord to keep things cool but if you’re a hobby shop and time is not actually the most important thing do you still need coolant
Coolant is more if a nuissance in a home shop than a help. You can't just mix up a tank and forget about it, it must be maintained and the tanks kept clean. It also tends to rust machinery when only used on occasion. If you need it at all, just use a spray bottle and mist it on the cutter as needed.
Just out of curiosity, if you are starting with a solid chunk and as you said, couldn't band-saw off a large portion of excess material, why not have the first opp be a drill opp and drill all the way through the full thickness to drop out the entire center slugs from the solid full raw stock material? Basically just like your plunge cut opp but with a drill right from the start (full raw material thickness). It appears that you machined the opposite side (side down on parallel's) before doing the thru pocket. This to me seems like you would have spent a excessive amount of time milling off all that material that would have been removed by just drilling the complete through pocket as the first opp. Then would have only been left with the narrow area of material to hog off.
Bandsawing as much material out as possible is always faster than milling. As I mentioned though, my saw is a little small for that so I opted to just mill it complete. Milling deep with an endmill is slower than keeping the cuts shallow due to chip removal and heat generation. That is why I opted to save the framing operation for last. Tom
Chris I thought the same thing, first op I chain drilling the full thickness before you mill anything , also was a bit poor on the work holding in the vice , Soon as the centre piece is removed the pocket will close up as the two ribs are outside the vice jaws, the pocket will not be square and the clamping force is reduced so the piece could lift out , 👍
If you watch my video on climb milling vs. conventional milling, you will understand why climb milling produces a better surface finish than conventional milling. Tom
What type of milling bit is that? I'm not a machinist but I have a project where I have to plunge and mill an aluminum block about an inch wide and 2 inches deep but not all the way through the piece. Any info would be appreciated.
